Saturday, October 21, 2017

Kolkata: The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport in Kolkata has registered 16 million passengers in the 2016-17 fiscal year, showing a growth of around 24 per cent from the previous year, Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials said. The number of passengers is expected to increase further by the end of the current fiscal year, officials added.
According to statistics shared by the AAI, 12.76 million passengers travelled to and from Kolkata airport in 2015-16. Nearly 13 million passengers used the integrated terminal in 2016, up from 10 million a couple of years ago. Of this, 10.61 million were domestic passengers, and 2.15 million were international travellers. The integrated terminal was designed to handle 20 million passengers a year. Similarly, in 2014-15, total passenger traffic was recorded as 10.92 million, of which 1.93 million were international passengers and 8.99 million were domestic travellers.
“In the 2016-17 fiscal year, 13.59 million passengers travelled to and from Kolkata for domestic destinations, while 2.23 million people were international passengers, taking the number of total passengers to 15.82 million,” said NSCBI Airport Director Atul Dixit.
The growth in number of international passengers has been nominal in the last two fiscal years, said officials. The new terminal was inaugurated in 2013, and initially, recorded only around 10 million passengers. Sources said the airport is now planning a third terminal, which is most likely to be constructed north of the current integrated terminal, to cater to domestic passengers and increase the capacity of the airport to 40 million passengers annually.
21/10/17 Sweety Kumari/Indian Express